Climate is a big figure in the cost of poultry production. Every day that water is frozen in winter means increased labor and decreased egg yield. Mild winters means cheap houses, cheap labor, cheap feed (a large proportion of green food), an earlier chick season, which, together with the mild weather and green feed, mean a large proportion of the egg yield at the season when eggs are high in price.

The American poultry editor wastes a great deal of ink explaining why the Australian egg records of 175 eggs per hen, cannot be so, because in this country, the hens at the Maine station only averaged 125. The Maine Experiment Station lies buried in a snow drift for about five months of the year. The Australian station has a winter climate equal to that of New Orleans. The Australian records do not go below thirty eggs per day per hundred hens at any time during the year. Our New York and New England records run down anywhere from one to ten eggs per day per hundred hens. The following table will show the effect of the climate upon the distribution of the egg yield throughout the year. The records at New York are from a large number of hens of several different flocks and probably represent a normal distribution of the egg yield for that section. The Kansas and Arkansas lists are taken from the record of small flocks and are not very reliable. The fourth column gives the Australian records with the months transferred on account of being in the southern hemisphere. The last column gives the railroad shipments from a division of the N.C. & St. L. railroad in Western Tennessee:

Column Headings:
NY—Central New York per hen per day
KS—Kansas Ex. Station per hen per day
AR—Arkansas Ex. Station per hen per day
AU—Australian Laying Contest per hen per day
NH—Shipments from New Hampshire egg farm
TN—Shipments from Western Tennessee

NYKSARAUNHTN
January.21.25.32.51261509
February.26.22.30.66411520
March.43.60.62.67662407
April.56.52.38.61831775
May.59.57.44.53811650
June.50.46.42.45611131
July.44.43.34.4358878
August.37.32.38.4154422
September.26.28.29.2924100
October.17.13.22.313541
November.08.06.18.312703
December.14.25.15.40111150

An equable climate the year round is the best for the chicken business. The California coast is fairly equable in temperature, but its winter rains and summer drouth are against it. The Atlantic coast south of New York is fairly good, probably the best the country affords. The most southern portions will be rather too hot in summer, which will result in a small August and September egg yield. Probably the region around Norfolk is, all considered, the best poultry climate the country affords.

Suitable Soil.

Soil is important in poultry farming; in fact it is very important, and many failures can be traced to soil mistakes. Rocky and uncultivated lands must not be chosen. To locate on any soil which will not utilize the droppings for the production of green food, is to introduce a loss sufficient to turn success into failure.

The ideal soil for poultry is a soil too sandy to produce ordinary farm crops successfully, and hence an inexpensive soil; but because land too sandy to be used for heavy farming is best for poultry, this does not mean that any cheap soil will do. A heavy wet clay soil worth $150 an acre for dairying is worth nothing for poultry. Pure sand is likewise worthless and nothing can be more pitiable than to see poultry confined in yards of wind swept sand, without a spear of anything green within half a mile.

The soils that are valuable for early truck are equally valuable for poultry. Sand with a little loam, or very fine sand, if a few green crops are turned under to provide humus, are ideal poultry soils. The Norfolk fine Sand and Norfolk Sandy Loam of the U.S. soil survey, are types of such soil.

These soils absorb the droppings readily and are never covered with standing water. The winter snows do not stay on them. Crops will keep greener on them in winter than on clay soils three hundred miles farther south.